SA accedes to 1976 apartheid convention

Despite the apartheid government initially opposing it, SA has now acceded to the 1976 International Convention on the Suppression & Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. A Business Day report says it came into effect for SA earlier this month. The convention declares apartheid a crime, allowing for member states to monitor and report apartheid and related crimes locally and internationally. By acceding to the Apartheid Convention, the Justice Department said it ‘would allow SA to take the lead in fighting racial discrimination worldwide’. This is particularly the case now, with SA’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. According to British legal Professors Gerhard Kemp and Victor Kattan, 16 member states to the Apartheid Convention have made similar claims against Israel in the past.

In 1973, the SA apartheid government was one of four countries, including the US, that opposed the convention when it was introduced in the UN. The Business Day report notes the convention makes explicit mention of apartheid in SA and the crimes committed against people of colour. Neither the US nor Israel are parties to the Apartheid Convention. However, despite SA overthrowing apartheid, it did not join the 1976 convention until last week. ‘The government felt apartheid was gone and there was therefore no need to ratify the Apartheid Convention,’ explained Kemp and Kattan. However, over time this attitude changed. ‘There was a realisation that international instances of racial discrimination and oppression necessitate ratification of treaties such as the Apartheid Convention.’

Kemp and Kattan said SA’s domestic laws cater to much of what the convention calls for. ‘It is clear from the debates in Parliament and the government’s explanations,’ they wrote in an explainer for the International Commission of Jurists, ‘that SA decided to accede to the Apartheid Convention, not for purposes of domestic law and policy, but rather to advance the international efforts to confront apartheid practices elsewhere in the world.’ The Business Day report says with the convention, Kemp and Kattan speculate SA could call for the UN to re-establish a ‘special committee against apartheid’ that could serve as a global monitoring body.